Cycad cones and flushes

[Sr. Califas]

Encephalartos lehmannii x ferox. I know it's small, but the biggest I have. 

 

Edited July 16, 2020 by Sr. Califas
Picture order.

[GeneAZ]

Any ferox hybrid is rare.  Ferox is resistent to hybridization.

[Tracy]

On 7/4/2020 at 1:51 PM, Tracy said:

Definitely cool and with the longifolius in the mix tend to have longer leaves and a bit different structure I think.  I would agree with you that it's worthy of having in the garden which is why I have a little one too.

On a different note, specifically Cycas thouarsii x cupida, my female is pushing out some megasporaphylls with the current flush and yesterday I noticed the other one I have is pushing up a cone.  Hooray, just hope they are in sync on the timing!  The pollination will be a little incestuous as these came from the same batch of seeds and same parent plant..

The female is putting out a pretty strong odor now, but the male still has a ways to go before I can collect any pollen from it.  I hope the female hangs on long enough for the male pollen! Cycas thouarsii x cupida in both cases.

[Meangreen94z]

7 hours ago, Tracy said:

The female is putting out a pretty strong odor now, but the male still has a ways to go before I can collect any pollen from it.  I hope the female hangs on long enough for the male pollen! Cycas thouarsii x cupida in both cases.

I would be interested in seed if you end up having some for sale. Thanks

[Tracy]

5 hours ago, Meangreen94z said:

I would be interested in seed if you end up having some for sale. Thanks

It may be a while even if I am successful.  My Cycas thouarsii are still holding seeds from pollination late summer of 2018, I think I'm within a few weeks now of 2 years of waiting patiently.  I don't even know if any of the C thouarsii seeds are viable, but these that I pollinated are larger than past batches that I never pollinated, so there is some hope.

[Palm Tree Jim]

3 hours ago, Tracy said:

It may be a while even if I am successful.  My Cycas thouarsii are still holding seeds from pollination late summer of 2018, I think I'm within a few weeks now of 2 years of waiting patiently.  I don't even know if any of the C thouarsii seeds are viable, but these that I pollinated are larger than past batches that I never pollinated, so there is some hope.

Now that is patience!

[Merlyn]

Here's my first ever Encephalartos cone, a Hildebrandtii offset from ChuckG.  I planted it last September and it flushed in April, then followed up with a cone!

[Tracy]

After this Encephalartos ituriensis finishes flushing I need to get it out of the pot.  Caudex has about filled up the 15 gallon completely now.

[xpeditions]

Dioon Edule and an E. Altensteinii pushing cones, Any idea on gender of the Altensteinii? First cones on this one (3 of them)

Edited July 27, 2020 by xpeditions

[Tracy]

10 hours ago, xpeditions said:

Dioon Edule and an E. Altensteinii pushing cones, Any idea on gender of the Altensteinii? First cones on this one (3 of them)

On the Encephalartos altensteinii my initial instinct is that it will be male, based on how the sporophyll faces look on what is exposed but it will be more accurately identified when the cone has pushed out further.  Some species the top of the cone has the same appearance in both sexes and it isn't until it pushes up and you can see the elongation that is the telltale of male cones (in most cases).  According to "The Cycads" L. Whitelock, both sexes can have between 1-5 cones with altenstenii.  So I would suggest posting an updated photo in a few weeks.  As everything with cycads, it requires some patience.  Easier said than done, as I got my first peek at my Encephalartos horridus woodii's initial cone yesterday morning.  My first instinct with what I can see is male too, but I need to be patient to see what emerges over time before jumping to any conclusions.

[xpeditions]

Thanks Tracy, yeah that was my gut feeling as well, but I guess time will tell....

[Tracy]

I know I shouldn't have been handling my Encephalartos ituriensis while it was flushing, but I needed to move it and decided to clear out a space along my outside wall for it just down from another one I have along the wall.  The yellower looking one is the one I just planted.  I removed a couple of Agave's to make room for it.  I'll have to keep it to a single flush so it doesn't stick out into the road too much, but I like the upright look.  I need to get some rocks to put around the base to hold up the soil as it's planted on a small slope.  Cutting away the pot it was in once I got it into the hole allowed me to avoid doing any damage to the tender leaflets during the planting process.

[Palm Tree Jim]

It will appreciate the heat radiated from the block wall.

Great cycad Tracy.

[Tracy]

More boys... Encephalartos laurentianus male cones.

[Palmzilla]

On 9/7/2020 at 8:44 PM, Tracy said:

More boys... Encephalartos laurentianus male cones.

Those are looking female 

[Tracy]

11 hours ago, Palmzilla said:

Those are looking female 

You may be correct.  It is the first time coning for this one and after watching so many cones push out long and narrow  (male), I thought these looked a bit elongated and not nearly as fat as some female cones.  If they are female, I have plenty of  male cones to create crosses, but no laurentianus pollen.  My pollen options based on cones that are nearly mature are quite diverse:  sclavoi, longifolius, trispinosis, horridus x woodii, arenarius x woodii or nat x horridus.

[JLM]

One of two Sagos startin to flush, the second one looks like it will be flushing soon. Im so glad the transplant i did on both of these earlier this year did not seem to phase them! This would make the second or maybe even third time they have flushed this year.

Edited September 11, 2020 by JLM
edits

[Palmzilla]

100 pound blue longi cone being pushed down by a new flush

[Palmzilla]

Enc princeps getting down

[Tracy]

On 9/11/2020 at 11:19 AM, Palmzilla said:

Enc princeps getting down

That is a really nice full flush it is pushing Bradon!  It looks like this is the first flush of the year for this one based on the brown tipping of the older leaves.  I'm curious as this would be a rather late season first flush for Encephalartos princeps.  My interest is more than academic, as neither of mine have flushed yet this year.  Meanwhile, several feet away my relatively small E blue arenarius x latifrons just started showing a second flush for the season.  I think this Springs excessive rains really wreaked havoc with all my Encephalartos.

[Palmzilla]

On 9/12/2020 at 1:59 PM, Tracy said:

That is a really nice full flush it is pushing Bradon!  It looks like this is the first flush of the year for this one based on the brown tipping of the older leaves.  I'm curious as this would be a rather late season first flush for Encephalartos princeps.  My interest is more than academic, as neither of mine have flushed yet this year.  Meanwhile, several feet away my relatively small E blue arenarius x latifrons just started showing a second flush for the season.  I think this Springs excessive rains really wreaked havoc with all my Encephalartos.

Tracy, this pic was actually from earlier this summer. 

[Tracy]

21 hours ago, Palmzilla said:

Tracy, this pic was actually from earlier this summer. 

That makes sense.  You can see why I've been expecting this one to pop a flush or maybe even a cone... but it has just stalled.  Same thing with a very reliable flushing Encephalartos arenarius this summer which is about this size, but no flush in 2020 yet.

[Palm Tree Jim]

35 minutes ago, Tracy said:

That makes sense.  You can see why I've been expecting this one to pop a flush or maybe even a cone... but it has just stalled.  Same thing with a very reliable flushing Encephalartos arenarius this summer which is about this size, but no flush in 2020 yet.

Tracy,

Similar events at my garden as well. Here is a picture of a princeps that is very late in flushing this year, if it does at all. 
 

[xpeditions]

Tracy, my princeps skipped its flush this year as well... It looked like it was going to start at the beginning of the summer but seems to have lost steam.  Getting it into the ground would likely help the situation....

 

[Tracy]

41 minutes ago, Palm Tree Jim said:

Similar events at my garden as well. Here is a picture of a princeps that is very late in flushing this year, if it does at all. 

 

22 minutes ago, xpeditions said:

my princeps skipped its flush this year as well... It looked like it was going to start at the beginning of the summer but seems to have lost steam.  Getting it into the ground would likely help the situation....

I have had a couple of times where I have experienced a "funky flush" with my E princeps but I don't think this one has ever skipped flushing altogether for a full year and that dates back to when it was a 1 1/2" seedling.  I'm certain that my E arenarius hasn't skipped a year before either.  Have either of you experienced this in past years?  The only Encephalartos  species that seems to do this in my yard is E sclavoi.  I have one E longifolius which took forever to acclimate after I dug it up from my Carlsbad house and transplanted it in Leucadia, but other than those, everything seems to either flush, cone or both every year.

[xpeditions]

This has been a slow year for flushes, anecdotally a few other folks in the Ventura / Santa Barbara area seem to have seen something similar... 2020 strikes again...

Of the plants that I expected to flush this year, the following seem to have skipped a beat:

E. Chiamanimaniensis (8-10 inch caudex)

E. Longifolius (12-14 inch Caudex)

E. Princeps (8 inch caudex)

D. Rzedowskii (6 inch caudex)

and a few others that I can't remember off the top of my head...

 

[Palm Tree Jim]

18 hours ago, Tracy said:

 

I have had a couple of times where I have experienced a "funky flush" with my E princeps but I don't think this one has ever skipped flushing altogether for a full year and that dates back to when it was a 1 1/2" seedling.  I'm certain that my E arenarius hasn't skipped a year before either.  Have either of you experienced this in past years?  The only Encephalartos  species that seems to do this in my yard is E sclavoi.  I have one E longifolius which took forever to acclimate after I dug it up from my Carlsbad house and transplanted it in Leucadia, but other than those, everything seems to either flush, cone or both every year.

Most of my cycads flush every year for me. Like you Tracy, if one does't flush it is more of an exception. This year, one of my princeps still has not flushed as I indicated above. This plant has always flushed for me and usually early in our growing season. In addition, my sclavoi sat in the ground for 4 years prior to flushing this year. This plant was a transplant from another yard and I was getting close to removing it.

Currently, I have some plants getting ready to flush such as a horridus hybrid, freddie g and arenarius.

 

[Tracy]

These boys are still holding their pollen, but must be getting close.  Encephalartos sclavoi with cones.

[Tracy]

On 9/8/2020 at 10:35 PM, Palmzilla said:

Those are looking female 

I'm looking for some feedback on the sex of the last photo.  The first four are all male cones, which are in order trispinosis, arenarius x woodii, longifolius and natalensis x horridus.  The last photo of a cone is my horridus x woodii.  I was assuming this is male based on the way the facets are.  However, I'm beginning to have questions because it doesn't appear to be as elongated as I would expect.  Since it is the first time this has coned I don't have experience to see pollen or see the cone desiccate and fall apart showing seeds.  I know you have this hybrid as well, so thought I would see if any of your Encephalartos horridus x woodii have coned yet and what their cones look(ed) like.  Anyone else with this hybrid can weigh in as well.

[Tracy]

Another comparison: Encephalartos horridus female cone and the Encephalartos horridus x woodii cone which is tbd.

[Tracy]

The cones on a bronze flushing Encephalartos sclavoi, with the first one at the point that its shedding pollen that I started to collect this evening.

[Tracy]

It was about time this female Ceratozamia latifolia flushed.  She has put out weak flushes the last couple of times while pushing cones, so hopefully with 5 new leaves she will look a bit prettier for a while.  Lovely color on these emerging leaves too.

[Tracy]

A pair of smaller blue cycads are pushing late second flushes for the year.  One plant is on the main caudex, while the other (last photo) is pushing out flushes on the pups.  This size and smaller are normally the only Encephalartos which push 2 flushes for me, and I think it's because they are smaller flushes which take less energy.  My larger Encephalartos pretty much stick with one flush and maybe a cone with it.

[Merlyn]

Here's a sorta-ok photo of a new Cycas Multipinnata flush, just starting to unroll.  It's tough to get an in-focus shot on the flush with my cheap camera.  The previous flushes are down below, they were already on the plant when I bought it from ChuckG.  It's growing great in about 50% sun/50% filtered light.  I'm hesitant to put this one out in more sun, because it's pretty rare.  But it's dark green and seems happy in partial sun!

Edited September 26, 2020 by Merlyn2220

[Tracy]

Double the action.  Female cones and a flush coming out the middle.  Cones still aren't receptive but I keep checking them daily. Ahhh and species is Encephalartos laurentianus.

[Merlyn]

17 hours ago, Tracy said:

Double the action.  Female cones and a flush coming out the middle.  Cones still aren't receptive but I keep checking them daily. Ahhh and species is Encephalartos laurentianus.

What are you planning to use for pollen?  I haven't seen any Laurentianus x (something), so I have no clue what they might hybridize with.  I have a Gratus x Whitelockii that is really neat, with the draping Gratus style leaves but twice as long as normal. 

[Tracy]

1 hour ago, Merlyn2220 said:

What are you planning to use for pollen?  I haven't seen any Laurentianus x (something), so I have no clue what they might hybridize with.  I have a Gratus x Whitelockii that is really neat, with the draping Gratus style leaves but twice as long as normal. 

I have been collecting pollen from the sclavoi pictured below.  I have a pair of Encephalartos whitelockii x sclavoi, so thought the sclavoi pollen on my laurentianus might be an interesting cross.  I don't have a male laurentiaunus, so that isn't an option.

[Merlyn]

I have a pair of Sclavoi x Ituriensis seedlings that are fast growing and nearly as blue as my regular Sclavoi.  I have no idea if the leaves will grow to 6 feet or 10 feet, but I like it so far!  Laurentianus x Sclavoi would be an awesome combo if it works!

[Meangreen94z]

Sorry to highjack, but any one on here have a Macrozamia “Jurien Bay” or have info on it? It’s obviously from the area of Jurien Bay, Australia but that’s about all I have on it. Someone told me it might be a variation of Fraseri.

[Jubaea_James760]

 @Meangreen94z, Whatever it is it looks pretty cool! Great color as well